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"This article is about the plant. For other uses, see
Tulip (disambiguation).
Tulips (
Tulipa) form a
genus of spring-blooming
perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly colored, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm colors). They often have a different colored blotch at the base of the
tepals (petals and sepals, collectively), internally. Because of a degree of variability within the populations, and a long history of cultivation, classification has been complex and controversial. The tulip is a member of the lily
family,
Liliaceae, along with 14 other genera, where it is most closely related to
Amana,
Erythronium and
Gagea in the tribe
Lilieae. There are about 75
species, and these are divided among four
subgenera. The name "tulip" is thought to be derived from a
Persian word for
turban, which it may have been thought to resemble. Tulips originally were found in a band stretching from Southern Europe to
Central Asia, but since the seventeenth century have become widely
naturalised and cultivated (
see map). In their natural state they are adapted to
steppes and
mountainous areas with
temperate climates. Flowering in the spring, they become dormant in the summer once the flowers and leaves die back, emerging above ground as a shoot from the underground bulb in early spring.
Tulips grew wild in the
Tien Shan Mountains and were cultivated in Istanbul in 1055. In the 15th century, tulips were among the most prized flowers; the flower was the symbol of the Ottomans.
[2] While tulips had probably been cultivated in Persia from the tenth century, they did not come to the attention of the West until the sixteenth century, when Western diplomats to the
Ottoman court observed and reported on them. They were rapidly introduced into Europe and became a frenzied commodity during
Tulip mania. Tulips were frequently depicted in
Dutch Golden Age paintings, and have become associated with the Netherlands, the major producer for world markets, ever since. In the seventeenth century Netherlands, during the time of the Tulip mania, an infection of tulip bulbs by the
tulip breaking virus created
variegated patterns in the tulip flowers that were much admired and valued. While truly broken tulips do not exist anymore, the closest available specimens today are part of the group known as the Rembrandts – so named because
Rembrandt painted some of the most admired breaks of his time.
[3]Breeding programs have produced thousands of
hybrid and
cultivars in addition to the original species (known in
horticulture as botanical tulips). They are popular throughout the world, both as
ornamental garden plants and as
cut flowers.
Contents
Description[edit]
Tulip
morphology
Bulbs, showing
tunicand scales
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulipa_orphanidea_060506.jpg)
Cup-shaped flower of
Tulipa orphanidea![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip_Tulipa_clusiana_%27Lady_Jane%27_Rock_Ledge_Flower_2000px.jpg)
Star-shaped flower of
Tulipa clusiana with three
sepals and three
petals, forming six identical
tepalsTulipa (tulips) is a genus of spring-blooming
perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes, dying back after flowering to an underground storage bulb. Depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 10 and 70 cm (4 and 28 inches) high.
Flowers: The tulip's flowers are usually large and are
actinomorphic (radially symmetric) and
hermaphrodite (contain both male (
androecium) and female (
gynoecium) characteristics), generally erect, or more rarely
pendulous, and are arranged more usually as a single terminal flower, or when
pluriflor as two to three (e.g.
Tulipa turkestanica), but up to four, flowers on the end of a
floriferous stem (
scape), which is single arising from amongst the basal leaf rosette. In structure, the flower is generally cup or star shaped. As with other members of
Liliaceae the
perianth is undifferentiated (
perigonium) and biseriate (two
whorled), formed from six free (i.e.
apotepalous)
caducous tepals arranged into two separate whorls of three parts (
trimerous) each. The two whorls represent three
petals and three
sepals, but are termed
tepals because they are nearly identical. The tepals are usually petaloid (petal like), being brightly coloured, but each whorl may be different, or have different coloured blotches at their bases, forming darker colouration on the interior surface. The inner petals have a small, delicate cleft at the top, while the sturdier outer ones form uninterrupted ovals.
[3] Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colours, except pure blue (several tulips with "blue" in the name have a faint violet hue), and have absent
nectaries.
[4][5][6][7] Tulip flowers are generally bereft of scent and are the coolest of floral characters. The Dutch regarded this lack of scent as a virtue, as it demonstrates the flower's chasteness.
[3]Androecium: The flowers have six distinct, basifixed
introrse stamens arranged in two whorls of three, which vary in length and may be glabrous or hairy. The filaments are shorter than the tepals and dilated towards their base.
[7]Gynoecium: The style is short or absent and each
stigma has three distinct lobes, and the
ovaries are superior, with three chambers.
[7]Fruit: The tulip's fruit is a
globose or
ellipsoid capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped
seedsin two rows per chamber.
[8] These light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and
endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed.
[9][7]Leaves: Tulip stems have few leaves. Larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12. The tulip's leaf is
cauline (born on a stem), strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternate (alternately arranged on the stem), diminishing in size the further up the stem. These fleshy blades are often bluish-green in colour.
[4][5][6]The bulbs are truncated basally and elongated towards the apex. They are covered by a protective tunic (tunicate) which can be
glabrous or hairy inside.
[7][6]Phytochemistry[edit]
Tulipanin is an
anthocyanin found in tulips. It is the 3-rutinoside of
delphinidin. The chemical compounds named tuliposides and tulipalins can also be found in tulips and are responsible for allergies.
[10] Tulipalin A, or α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone, is a common
allergen, generated by hydrolysis of the glucoside tuliposide A. It induces a
dermatitis that is mostly occupational and affects tulip bulb sorters and
florists who cut the stems and leaves.
[11] Tulipanin A and B are toxic to horses, cats and dogs.
[12] The colour of a tulip is formed from two pigments working in concert; a base colour that is always yellow or white, and a second laid-on anthocyanin colour. The mix of these two hues determines the visible unitary colour. The breaking of flowers occurs when a virus suppresses anthocyanin and the base colour is exposed as a streak.
[3]Taxonomy[edit]
Main article:
Taxonomy of TulipaTulipa is a
genus of the lily family,
Liliaceae, once one of the largest families of
monocots, but which
molecular phylogenetics has reduced to a
monophyletic grouping with only 15 genera. Within Liliaceae,
Tulipa is placed within
Lilioideae, one of three subfamilies, with two
tribes. Tribe
Lilieae includes seven other genera in addition to
Tulipa.
Subdivision[edit]
The genus, which includes about 75
species, is divided into four
subgenera.
[6]- Clusianae (4 species)
- Orithyia (4 species)
- Tulipa (52 species)
- Eriostemones (16 species)
Etymology[edit]
The word
tulip, first mentioned in western Europe in or around 1554 and seemingly derived from the "Turkish Letters" of diplomat
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, first appeared in English as
tulipa or
tulipant, entering the language by way of
French:
tulipe and its obsolete form
tulipan or by way of Modern Latin
tulipa, from
Ottoman Turkish tülbend ("
muslin" or "
gauze"), and may be ultimately derived from the
Persian: دلبند
delband ("
Turban"), this name being applied because of a perceived resemblance of the shape of a tulip flower to that of a turban.
[13] This may have been due to a translation error in early times when it was fashionable in the Ottoman Empire to wear tulips on turbans. The translator possibly confused the flower for the turban.
[6]Distribution and habitat[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seidenstrasse_GMT_Ausschnitt_Zentralasien.jpg)
Eastern end of the tulip range from
Turkmenistan on the eastern shore of the
Caspian Sea to the
Pamir-Alai and
Tien-Shan mountains
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Badghis_flowers.jpg)
Tulips in a field in
Badghis Province, Afghanistan
Tulips are mainly distributed along a band corresponding to
latitude 40° north, from southeast of Europe (
Ukraine,
Russia) and
Turkey in the west, through the
Levant (Syria, Israel,
Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Jordan) and the
Sinai Peninsula. From there it extends eastwards through
Jerevan, (Armenia) and
Baku (
Azerbaijan) and on the eastern shore of the
Caspian Sea through
Turkmenistan,
Bukhara,
Samarkand and
Tashkent (Uzbekistan), to the eastern end of the range in the
Pamir-Alai and
Tien-Shan mountains in
Central Asia, which form the
centre of diversity.
[14] Further to the east,
Tulipa is found in the western
Himalayas, southern
Siberia, Inner Mongolia, and as far as the northwest of China. While authorities have stated that no tulips west of the Balkans are native,
[15] subsequent identification of
Tulipa sylvestris subsp.
australis as a native of the
Iberian peninsula and adjacent
North Africa shows that this may be a simplification. In addition to these regions in the west tulips have been identified in Greece, Cyprus and the
Balkans. In the south, Iran marks its furthest extent, while the northern limit is the Ukraine.
[16] Although tulips are also throughout most of the Mediterranean and Europe, these regions do not form part of the natural distribution. Tulips were brought to Europe by travellers and merchants from
Anatolia and Central Asia for cultivation, from where they escaped and naturalised (
see map). For instance, less than half of those species found in Turkey are actually native.
[15] These have been referred to as neo-tulipae.
[17][18][6]Tulips are indigenous to
mountainous areas with
temperate climates, where they are a common element of
steppe and winter-rain
Mediterranean vegetation. They thrive in climates with long, cool springs and dry summers. Tulips are most commonly found in
meadows,
steppes and
chaparral, but also introduced in fields, orchards, roadsides and abandoned gardens.
[17][6]Ecology[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip_with_variegated_colors.jpg)
Variegation produced by the tulip breaking virus
Botrytis tulipae is a major
fungal disease affecting tulips, causing cell death and eventually the rotting of the plant.
[19] Other pathogens include
anthracnose,
bacterial soft rot,
blight caused by
Sclerotium rolfsii, bulb
nematodes, other
rots including
blue molds,
black molds and mushy rot.
[20]The fungus
Trichoderma viride can infect tulips, producing dried leaf tips and reduced growth, although symptoms are usually mild and only present on bulbs growing in
glasshouses.
[citation needed]Variegated tulips admired during the Dutch
tulipomania gained their delicately feathered patterns from an infection with the
tulip breaking virus, a
mosaic virusthat was carried by the
green peach aphid,
Myzus persicae. While the virus produces fantastically streaked flowers, it also weakens plants and reduces the number of offsets produced. Dutch growers would go to extraordinary lengths during tulipomania to make tulips break, borrowing alchemists’ techniques and resorting to sprinkling paint powders of the desired hue or pigeon droppings onto flower roots.
[3]Tulips affected by the mosaic virus are called "broken"; while such plants can occasionally revert to a plain or solid colouring, they will remain infected and have to be destroyed. Today the virus is almost eradicated from tulip growers' fields. The multicoloured patterns of modern varieties result from breeding; they normally have solid, un-feathered borders between the colours.
Tulip growth is also dependent on temperature conditions. Slightly germinated plants show greater growth if subjected to a period of cool dormancy, known as
vernalisation. Furthermore, although flower development is induced at warmer temperatures (20–25 °C or 68–77 °F), elongation of the flower stalk and proper flowering is dependent on an extended period of low temperature (< 10 °C or 50 °F).
[21] Tulip bulbs imported to warm-winter areas are often planted in autumn to be treated as annuals.
The colour of tulip flowers also vary with growing conditions.
[22]Cultivation[edit]
History[edit]
Islamic World[edit]
Tulipa sylvestris subsp.
australis[a] with seedpod by
Sydenham Edwards (1804)
[23]Cultivation of the tulip began in Persia, probably in the 10th century.
[6] Early cultivars must have emerged from hybridisation in gardens from wild collected plants, which were then favoured, possibly due to flower size or growth vigour. The tulip is not mentioned by any writer from antiquity,
[24] therefore it seems probable that tulips were introduced into Anatolia only with the advance of the
Seljuks.
[24] In the
Ottoman Empire, numerous types of tulips were cultivated and bred,
[25] and today, 14 species can still be found in Turkey.
[24] Tulips are mentioned by
Omar Kayam and
Jalāl ad-Dīn Rûmi.
[24] Species of tulips in Turkey typically come in red, less commonly in white or yellow. The Ottoman Turks had discovered that these wild tulips were great changelings, freely hybridizing (though it takes 7 years to show color) but also subject to mutations that produced spontaneous changes in form and color.
[3]A paper by Arthur Baker
[26] reports that in 1574, Sultan
Selim II ordered the Kadi of
A‘azāz in Syria to send him 50,000 tulip bulbs. However, John Harvey
[27]points out several problems with this source, and there is also the possibility that tulips and
hyacinth (
sümbüll), originally Indian
spikenard (
Nardostachys jatamansi) have been confused. Sultan Selim also imported 300,000 bulbs of
Kefe Lale (also known as Cafe-Lale, from the medieval name Kaffa, probably
Tulipa schrenkii) from
Kefe in
Crimea, for his gardens in the
Topkapı Sarayı in
Istanbul.
[28]It is also reported that shortly after arriving in Constantinople in 1554, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, ambassador of the Austrian Habsburgs to the court of Suleyman the Magnificent, claimed to have introduced the tulip to Europe by sending a consignment of bulbs west. The fact that the tulip's first official trip west took it from one court to the other could have contributed to its ascendency.
[3]Sultan
Ahmet III maintained famous tulip gardens in the summer highland pastures (
Yayla) at
Spil Dağı above the town of
Manisa.
[29] They seem to have consisted of wild tulips. However, from the 14 tulip species known from Turkey, only four are considered to be of local origin,
[30] so wild tulips from Iran and Central Asia may have been brought into Turkey during the Seljuk and especially Ottoman periods. Sultan Ahmet also imported domestic tulip bulbs from the Netherlands.
The gardening book
Revnak'ı Bostan (Beauty of the Garden) by Sahibül Reis
ülhaç Ibrahim Ibn ülhaç Mehmet, written in 1660 does not mention the tulip at all, but contains advice on growing hyacinths and
lilies.
[31] However, there is considerable confusion of terminology, and tulips may have been subsumed under hyacinth, a mistake several European botanists were to perpetuate. In 1515, the scholar
Qasim from
Herat in contrast had identified both wild and garden tulips (lale) as
anemones (
shaqayq al-nu'man), but described the
crown imperial as
laleh kakli.
[31]In a
Turkic text written before 1495, the
Chagatay Husayn Bayqarah mentions tulips (
lale).
[32] Babur, the founder of the
Mughal Empire, also names tulips in the
Baburnama.
[33] He may actually have introduced them from
Afghanistan to the plains of India, as he did with other plants like melons and grapes.
[34]In Moorish
Andalus, a "Makedonian bulb" (
basal al-maqdunis) or "bucket-
Narcissus" (
naryis qadusi) was cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens. It was supposed to have come from
Alexandria and may have been
Tulipa sylvestris, but the identification is not wholly secure.
[35]Introduction to Western Europe[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holland_tulips.jpg)
Tulip cultivation in the
Netherlands![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Keukenhof_Holanda_003.JPG)
The
Keukenhof in
Lisse, Netherlands
Although it is unknown who first brought the tulip to Northwestern Europe, the most widely accepted story is that it was
Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, an
ambassador for
Emperor Ferdinand I to
Suleyman the Magnificent. According to a letter, he saw "an abundance of flowers everywhere;
Narcissus,
hyacinths and those in Turkish called Lale, much to our astonishment because it was almost midwinter, a season unfriendly to flowers."
[36][37] However, in 1559, an account by
Conrad Gessner describes tulips flowering in
Augsburg,
Swabia in the garden of Councillor Heinrich Herwart.
[38] In Central and Northern Europe, tulip bulbs are generally removed from the ground in June and must be replanted by September for the winter.
[citation needed] It is doubtful that Busbecq could have had the tulip bulbs harvested, shipped to Germany and replanted between March 1558 and Gessner's description the following year.
Pietro Andrea Mattioli illustrated a tulip in 1565 but identified it as a
narcissus.
Carolus Clusius is largely responsible for the spread of tulip bulbs in the final years of the sixteenth century. He planted tulips at the Vienna Imperial Botanical Gardens in 1573. He finished the first major work on tulips in 1592 and made note of the variations in colour. After he was appointed the director of the
Leiden University's newly established
Hortus Botanicus, he planted both a teaching garden and his private garden with tulips in late 1593. Thus, 1594 is considered the date of the tulip's first flowering in the
Netherlands, despite reports of the cultivation of tulips in private gardens in
Antwerpand
Amsterdam two or three decades earlier. These tulips at Leiden would eventually lead to both the
tulip mania and the tulip industry in the Netherlands.
[39] Over two raids, in 1596 and in 1598, more than one hundred bulbs were stolen from his garden.
Tulips spread rapidly across Europe and more opulent varieties such as double tulips were already known in Europe by the early 17th century. These curiosities fitted well in an age when natural oddities were cherished and especially in the Netherlands, France, Germany and England, where the spice trade with the East Indies had made many people wealthy. N
ouveaux riches seeking wealthy displays embraced the exotic plant market, especially in the Low Countries where gardens had become fashionable. A craze for bulbs soon grew in France, where in the early 17th century, entire properties were exchanged as payment for a single tulip bulb. The value of the flower gave it a special ‘aura’ of mystique, and numerous publications describing varieties in lavish garden manuals were published, cashing in on the value of the flower. An export business was built up in France, supplying Dutch, Flemish, German and English buyers. The trade drifted slowly from the French to the Dutch and is thought to have sparked the infamous tulip mania in Holland.
[40]Between 1634 and 1637, the enthusiasm for the new flowers in Holland triggered a
speculative frenzy now known as the
tulip mania that eventually led to the collapse of the market three years later. Tulip bulbs had become so expensive that they were treated as a form of currency, or rather, as futures, forcing the Dutch government to introduce trading restrictions on the bulbs.
[40] Around this time, the
ceramic tulipiere was devised for the display of cut flowers stem by stem. Vases and bouquets, usually including tulips, often appeared in
Dutch still-life painting. To this day, tulips are associated with the Netherlands, and the cultivated forms of the tulip are often called "Dutch tulips." The Netherlands has the world's largest permanent display of tulips at the
Keukenhof.
The majority of tulip cultivars are classified in the taxon
Tulipa ×gesneriana. They have usually several species in their direct background, but most have been derived from
Tulipa suaveolens(today often regarded as a synonym with
Tulipa schrenkii).
Tulipa ×gesneriana is in itself an early hybrid of complex origin and is probably not the same taxon as was described by
Conrad Gessner in the 16th century.
[6]Introduction to the United States[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Dallas_Arboretum_and_Botanical_Garden.jpg)
The
Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden
It is believed the first tulips in the
United States were grown near
Spring Pond at the Fay Estate in
Lynn and
Salem,
Massachusetts. From 1847 to 1865, Richard Sullivan Fay, Esq., one of Lynn's wealthiest men, settled on 500 acres (2 km
2; 202 ha) located partly in present-day Lynn and partly in present-day Salem. Mr. Fay imported many different trees and plants from all parts of the world and planted them among the meadows of the Fay Estate.
[41]Propagation[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_tulipa_inside.jpg)
Tulip pistil surrounded by stamens
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip_Stamen_Tip.jpg)
Tulip stamen with pollen grainsThe reproductive organs of a tulip
The
Netherlands is the world's main producer of commercial tulip plants, producing as many as 3 billion bulbs annually, the majority for export.
[42]Tulips can be propagated through bulb
offsets,
seeds or
micropropagation.
[43] Offsets and
tissue culture methods are means of
asexual propagation for producing
genetic clones of the parent plant, which maintains
cultivar genetic integrity. Seeds are most often used to propagate
species and
subspeciesor to create new
hybrids. Many tulip species can
cross-pollinate with each other, and when wild tulip populations overlap geographically with other tulip species or subspecies, they often hybridise and create mixed populations. Most commercial tulip cultivars are complex hybrids, and often
sterile.
Offsets require a year or more of growth before plants are large enough to flower. Tulips grown from seeds often need five to eight years before plants are of flowering size. To prevent cross-pollination, increase the growth rate of bulbs and increase the vigour and size of offsets, the flower and stems of a field of commercial tulips are usually
topped using large tractor-mounted mowing heads. The same goals can be achieved by a private gardener by clipping the stem and flower of an individual specimen. Commercial growers usually harvest the tulip bulbs in late summer and grade them into sizes; bulbs large enough to flower are sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted for sale in the future.
Because of the fact that tulip bulbs don't reliably come back every year, tulip varieties that fall out of favour with present aesthetic values have traditionally gone extinct. Unlike other flowers that do not suffer this same limitation, the Tulip's historical forms do not survive alongside their modern incarnations.
[3]Horticultural classification[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip_Gavota.jpg)
'Gavota', a division 3 cultivar
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yonina_Tulip.jpg)
'Yonina', a division 6 cultivar
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kvetouc%C3%AD_tulip%C3%A1n.jpg)
'Texas Flame', a division 10 cultivar
In horticulture, tulips are divided into fifteen groups (Divisions) mostly based on flower morphology and plant size.
[44][45]- Div. 1: Single early – with cup-shaped single flowers, no larger than 8 cm (3 inches) across. They bloom early to mid season. Growing 15 to 45 cm (6 to 18 inches) tall.
- Div. 2: Double early – with fully double flowers, bowl shaped to 8 cm (3 inches) across. Plants typically grow from 30–40 cm (12–16 inches) tall.
- Div. 3: Triumph – single, cup shaped flowers up to 6 cm (2.5 inches) wide. Plants grow 35–60 cm (14–24 inches) tall and bloom mid to late season.
- Div. 4: Darwin hybrid – single flowers are ovoid in shape and up to 6 cm (2.5 inches) wide. Plants grow 50–70 cm (20–28 inches) tall and bloom mid to late season. This group should not be confused with older Darwin tulips, which belong in the Single Late Group below.
- Div. 5: Single late – cup or goblet-shaped flowers up to 8 cm (3 inches) wide, some plants produce multi-flowering stems. Plants grow 45–75 cm (18–30 inches) tall and bloom late season.
- Div. 6: Lily-flowered – the flowers possess a distinct narrow 'waist' with pointed and reflexed petals. Previously included with the old Darwins, only becoming a group in their own right in 1958.[46]
- Div. 7: Fringed (Crispa) – cup or goblet-shaped blossoms edged with spiked or crystal-like fringes, sometimes called “tulips for touch” because of the temptation to “test” the fringes to see if they are real or made of glass. Perennials with a tendency to naturalize in woodland areas, growing 45–65 cm (18–26 inches) tall and blooming in late season.
- Div. 8: Viridiflora
- Div. 9: Rembrandt
- Div. 10: Parrot
- Div. 11: Double late – Large, heavy blooms. They range from 46 to 56 cm (18 to 22 inches) tall.
- Div. 12: Kaufmanniana – Waterlily tulip. Medium-large creamy yellow flowers marked red on the outside and yellow at the center. Stems 15 cm (6 inches) tall.
- Div. 13: Fosteriana (Emperor)
- Div. 14: Greigii – Scarlet flowers 15 cm (6 inches) across, on 15-centimetre (6 in) stems. Foliage mottled with brown.[47]
- Div. 15: Species or Botanical – The terms "species tulips" and "botanical tulips" refer to wild species in contrast to hybridised varieties.[48] As a group they have been described as being less ostentatious but more reliably vigorous as they age.[49][50]
- Div. 16: Multiflowering – not an official division, these tulips belong in the first 15 divisions but are often listed separately because they have multiple blooms per bulb.
They may also be classified by their flowering season:
[51]- Early flowering: Single Early Tulips, Double Early Tulips, Greigii Tulips, Kaufmanniana Tulips, Fosteriana Tulips, § Species tulips
- Mid-season flowering: Darwin Hybrid Tulips, Triumph Tulips, Parrot Tulips
- Late season flowering: Single Late Tulips, Double Late Tulips, Viridiflora Tulips, Lily-flowering Tulips, Fringed (Crispa) Tulips, Rembrandt Tulips
Neo-tulipae[edit]
A number of names are based on naturalised garden tulips and are usually referred to as neo-tulipae. These are often difficult to trace back to their original cultivar, and in some cases have been occurring in the wild for many centuries. The history of naturalisation is unknown, but populations are usually associated with agricultural practices and are possibly linked to
saffron cultivation
[clarification needed]. Some neo-tulipae have been brought into cultivation, and are often offered as botanical tulips. These cultivated plants can be classified into two Cultivar Groups: 'Grengiolensis Group', with picotee tepals, and the 'Didieri Group' with unicolourous tepals.
Horticulture[edit]
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip-Bulb-Deapth.jpg)
Tulip bulb planting depth 15 cm (6 inches)
Tulip bulbs are typically planted around late summer and fall, in well-drained soils. Tulips should be planted 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) apart from each other. The recommended hole depth is 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 inches) deep, and is measured from the top of the bulb to the surface. Therefore, larger tulip bulbs would require deeper holes. Species tulips are normally planted deeper.
[citation needed]Culture[edit]
Turkish Airlines uses a grey tulip emblem on its aircraftIranian 20 Rials coin
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Obverse_of_Iranian_20_Rials_coin_-_monument_of_3rd_anniversary_of_Islamic_revolution_(cropped_square).jpg)
Obverse with 22 tulips
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reverse_of_Iranian_20_Rials_coin_-_monument_of_3rd_anniversary_of_Islamic_revolution_(cropped_square).jpg)
Reverse with 3 tulips
The tulip was a topic for Persian poets from the thirteenth century. In the poem
Gulistan by
Musharrifu'd-din Saadi, described a visionary garden paradise with "The murmur of a cool stream / bird song, ripe fruit in plenty / bright multicoloured tulips and fragrant roses..."
[52] In recent times, tulips have featured in the poems of
Simin Behbahani.
Tulips are called
lale in
Turkish (from
Persian: "laleh" لاله). When written in Arabic letters, "lale" has the same letters as
Allah, which is why the flower became a holy symbol. It was also associated with the House of
Osman, resulting in tulips being widely used in decorative motifs on tiles, mosques, fabrics, crockery, etc. in the
Ottoman Empire.
[6] The tulip was seen as a symbol of abundance and indulgence. The era during which the Ottoman Empire was wealthiest is often called the
Tulip era or
Lale Devri in
Turkish.
Tulips became popular garden plants in east and west, but, whereas the tulip in Turkish culture was a
symbol of
paradise on earth and had almost a divine status, in the Netherlands it represented the briefness of life.
[6]The Black Tulip is a historical romance by
Alexandre Dumas, père. The story takes place in the Dutch city of
Haarlem, where a reward is offered to the first grower who can produce a truly black tulip.
While tulips can be bred to display a wide variety of colours, black tulips have historically been difficult to achieve. The Queen of the Night tulip is as close to black as a flower gets, though it is, in fact, a dark and glossy maroonish purple - nonetheless, an effect prized by the Dutch.
[3]The first truly black tulip was bred in 1986 by a Dutch flower grower in Bovenkarspel, Netherlands. The specimen was created by cross-breeding two deep purple tulips, the Queen of the Night and Wienerwald tulips.
[53]The Semper Augustus was the most expensive tulip during tulip mania. “The colour is white, with Carmine on a blue base, and with an unbroken flame right to the top” – wrote Nicolas van Wassenaer in 1624 after seeing the tulip in the garden of one Dr Adriaen Pauw, a director of the new East India Company. With limited specimens in existence at the time and most owned by Pauw, his refusal to sell any flowers, despite wildly escalating offers, is believed by some to have sparked the mania.
[3]By contrast to other flowers such as the coneflower or lotus, tulips have historically been capable of genetically reinventing themselves to suit changes in aesthetic values. In his 1597 herbal, John Gerard says of the tulip that “nature seems to play more with this flower than with any other that I do know.” When in the Netherlands, beauty was defined by marbleized swirls of vivid contrasting colours, the petals of tulips were able to become "feathered" and "flamed." However, in the 19th century, when the English desired tulips for carpet bedding and massing, the tulips were able to once again accommodate this by evolving into “paint filled boxes with the brightest, fattest dabs of pure pigment.” This inherent mutability of the tulip even led the Ottoman Turks to believe that nature cherished this flower above all others.
[3]The Tulip is also viewed prominently in a number of the Major Arcana cards of the Oswald Wirth Tarot deck. Specifically: Arcanas Zero, One, Four, and Fifteen.
Today,
Tulip festivals are held around the world, for example in the
Netherlands[54] and
Spalding,
England. There is also a popular festival in
Morges, Switzerland. Every spring, there are tulip festivals in
North America, including the
Tulip Time Festival in
Holland,
Michigan, the
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in
Skagit Valley,
Washington, the Tulip Time Festival in
Orange City and
Pella,
Iowa, and the
Canadian Tulip Festival in
Ottawa,
Ontario,
Canada. Tulips are also popular in
Australia and several festivals are held in September and October, during the
Southern Hemisphere's
spring.
In Christianity, tulips symbolize passion, belief and love. White tulips represent forgiveness while purple tulips represent royalty, both important aspects of
Easter.
[55]Culinary uses[edit]
Tulip petals are
edible flowers. The taste varies by variety and season, and is roughly similar to
lettuce or other salad greens. Some people are
allergic to tulips.
[56][57]Tulip bulbs look similar to onions, but should not generally be considered food. The toxicity of bulbs is not well-understood, nor is there an agreed-upon method of safely preparing them for human consumption. There have been reports of illness when eaten, depending on quantity.
[58] During the
Dutch famine of 1944–45, tulip bulbs were eaten out of desperation, and Dutch doctors provided recipes.
[59]
" -Wikipedia